Half buried treasure, ahoy!

Living on the coast (well let's face it in Ireland the coast is never far away) we have the joy of going to the 'beaches' and watching the waves, looking in rock pools and getting our toes absolutely frozen by the Irish Sea whenever we feel like it. It also gives us seaweed after a storm and boy do we love that wonder stuff on the plot ~ rich fertiliser and the constant thoughts of chips when you walk around and smell the seaside in the fields.

Well of course another thing we have the benefit of is Jetsam - stuff washed ashore (as opposed to Flotsam which sinks) and boy did we strike it lucky on Tuesday night. We went to Brown's Bay, a little, popular cove not far from Carrickfergus which I am proud to say has just won a Keep Britain Tidy beach award. It was a lovely night and after a terrible day of depression, it was just the thing I needed to perk me up....seeing both my Hubby fall over on the sand and Maggie independently and very funnily tripping and getting a mouth full of sand had me in tears, this time due to laughter instead of being low. The sun as also beginning to set and it was quiet apart from the cows and sheep.

We, well I say we, it was Andrew, found this large barrel half buried in the sand. Was it half empty or half full of sand ~ you can decide. We saw and we wanted. It was bloomin' hard work but after scrapping some sand out and managing to get a little lever under the barnacled base we slowly got it out of its hole. Then Andrew had the fab idea of rolling it along the beach to loosen the sand inside and it just all poured out. Eh, Viola! We have a recycled carrot pot. Of course it smelt SO bad getting it home in the car but I reckon it will be worth it. It already has a place on 14b and the fun of getting it out will forever be associated with it. It was a good night.

Carrot fly can't fly very high so this will protect them and we may even get some of those ridiculously long specimens you see at village shows with the soil being so deep for them. Of course it can't stay in the state it's in for long. Yes I will keep the stenciled name on the side intact but it needs a few painted flowers and swirls on it and a darn good wash! But we are very happy with it - I love free things!!!!

P.S. Still working on that roar......

Manure and Fruit

I'm eating cherries - yum. One day, one day in the not too distant future maybe I'll write a blogette eating our own from the Lottie. Happy days..... Also, just took the dog for a walk, by myself, for the first time this week, so I feel momentarily invincible.

The title is blunt, I know but for me the weekend truly was all about Manure (Green and Animal) and fruit bushes. I'll explain...

Andrew was driving me mad with his Fruit Arch shenanigans and the vibe on the Lottie wasn't great. When something is perfect and done in an instant, he gets very crabby. Enough said. I (to save my precious sanity) went to the other end of the plot and started to dig, turning over the green manure so it can start to rot down. Ahh, digging, thrusting your spade into the ground with force and getting a sweat going - does you the world of good when peeved off at the Hubby.

I did 3 beds in the end and it just happened to work out that it was a half and half split between Green and Animal Manure that I was turning. I have to say, so far I much prefer the cow poo (never thought I'd write that sentence!), the ground just under it was more friable and full of worms - in the Green Manure beds, it was compacted, very compacted and a pain to work with. I still have an open mind about the whole sowing a living covering for over winter but I am still to be impressed with the results. We'll see...

Actually what are you're thoughts on this???? I'd love to know.

I am not going to post a picture of 3 beds of muck to illustrate my work here. That would be very boring for all of us; have a look at this instead, much better. My Valentine's Day dinner, made by the hubby - yum.



Then I had the terrible, and I mean heartbreaking, task of cutting back the Autumn Raspberries. My goodness they've only been in there for a little while and looked sad enough as it was, i.e. 6 twigs in the ground. But now it's as if there isn't anything there at all. They get cropped right down to ground level - so harsh. (Oh, and my cherries are finished too - not fair!!)



Let's move on from this story and go to the big moment (for me) - Planting the Blackcurrant Bushes on Sunday. We were lucky a good few months back to get hold of 2 bushes a 'Ben Lomond' and a 'Baldwin' for the great price of a £1 each. This past weekend was the first time the ground was okay to plant in. I DID IT, ALL ON MY OWN. It was exciting, I did a totally text book job of it and Andrew was extremely impressed. It was in doing that job that I had a 'life- is- okay-and-so-am-I' moment and believe me they are very few and far between. After I'd tidied up after myself, I took a wee walk and there was a tear. (Think what you may of me but I didn't feel terrible and that is huge).

The before and after pictures of that will have to wait, I got the before but then the camera battery died a very untimely death - so no after shot. :(


P.S. Finally put up that new number sign, eh viola!




Update on manure debate:

My friends at Grow your own - http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/allotment-advice/green-vs-cow-manure_27946.html - have decided that both types are good ffor different areas, but over all they prefer animal poo.

Those friends at Grow Veg - http://www.growveg.info/viewtopic.php?f=861&t=13441 - also went with animal poo though again some felt green manure had it's place, especially as a weed suppressor.

The polls have only been going one night but this highly unscientific experiment seems to show (at present) that animal poo is the way to go.

Winter weather :(

This weather is crushing me - no lovely fluffy snow for us, no we get freezing winds and rain, with a bit of sleet thrown in for good measure. Carrick is under a big cloud and I personally can feel the weight of the darn thing on my head and shoulders. Ba Humbug to winter.

The Lottie was feeling rather sorry for herself on Saturday, half a spade's depth down in the raised beds and we hit a clay-y type of quick sand; a sucky, sticky mess. Water-logged. Couldn't really do anything and what I did do will have to wait for another day (where I shall surely be moaning and lamenting again) so I have something to write later in the week.

P.S. The 'value' shops have started to get in lots of gardening stuff and B&Q are selling off essentials for £1 etc. Good time to get out (under the cover of a warm shop environment!) and get yourselves some bargains!

I hope you aren't as down in the dumps as me - even seeing the potatoes chitting on the window sill is making be feel 'hummph'. I need sunshine - where's Spring????

Christmas Bargains

This whole credit crunch thing has its good points you know. At the weekend Andrew and I got a whole load of stuff for the Lottie, with Christmas money from my 2 Aunties. My Hubby has been planning an Apple Arch for a long time now and we bought 2 lovely trees and 3 arches all at a bargain price. (I'll tell you about the arch tomorrow...)

We have also become quite obsessed by Raspberries. After putting all those Autumn fruiting ('Joan J') ones into the permanent bed recently we decided that more Summer ones would be good too. (We like Raspberries.) In Homebase they were selling 3 pots for £10! There are 3 good, just potted up stems, in each pot = 9 Raspberry plants for £10! Good eh?

2 pots of 'Glen Clova' and 1 of 'Tulameen' ~ these names mean nothing to me yet but I will get round to looking them up. I just hope we get fruit some day and I can get to making jam (its quite an achievable dream, surely).

Then we drove up the road a little, to a nursery (mainly for a coffee and wee bun in their nice cafe) and managed to get these lovely blackcurrant bushes at a humble £1 each. You just couldn't shake a stick at that now, could you?

The one on the left is a 'Ben Lomond' and on the right is a 'Baldwin', Fingers crossed our bargains don't turn out to be a false economy.

Update on the Hellebores!

They are doing well ~ recovering from the ordeal that was being for sale in an evil Tesco shop* and reduced. Think what this has done to their self esteem!

Anyway, I'm getting them ALL for one of my flower beds at the Lottie - Hoorah.


(*to be confirmed)

Bargains and Bins

We were in evil Tesco* last night for a few essentials (ha!, how I smirked at their sorry excuses for Parsnips) and Andrew spotted a bargain, he just could not pass up. Hellebores for 20p! There were 4 of them and we took the lot, even the tray they were sitting in. They're great wee plants, nothing wrong with them at all, just dying of thirst. I think that just because they say 'Christmas Rose' on them, they're being reduced along with all the other Christmas-y stuff. Well, Hoorah and Merry Chrimbo!

I think I've managed to secure at least a couple for my flower bed at the Lottie, fingers crossed.

Anyway, back to Saturday and the hard labour we put in. The turf stack - it's gone! It took a couple of hours to get it all dug up and riddled but the sore legs and back were definitely worth it. We seem to have so much more room now and plenty of beautiful free top soil on our beds.

The holy trinity of compost bins has been moved over and now the boundary between us and our neighbours (remember we only have a half plot) is very clearly defined the whole length of the Lottie. Hey, good fences make good neighbours and all that.

There are loads of lovely worms from under that stack so the compost will be a joy to their little hearts. Andrew lifted the bins over and took the opportunity to turn the contents over. Now we're going to have another little thin bed down there, I think we've decided to put summer fruiting raspberries in it - we'll make the best of it, for sure.

Apart from that we cleared the 1st bed on the left of its lettuces, baby carrots (which weren't coping with this weather at all and were extremely tiny) and scallions. Then filled it with lovely top soil. But I'll talk about harvest baskets tomorrow...

(*TBC)